1942’s Best Picture winner, Mrs. Miniver, tells a heartfelt story of an English family effected deeply by WWII. From blackout drills to avoid German bombs to participating in the civilian rescue at Dunkirk, Mrs. Miniver is fine-tuned William Wyler film. … Continue reading
Much like the previous year’s winner, it’s hard to believe that John Ford only had one film in his storied career win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The distinction goes, not to one of his classic westerns, but to … Continue reading
It seems inconceivable that the great Alfred Hitchcock only earned one Academy Award for Best Director and only one film named Best Picture. That’s the reality, however and Rebecca is as fine a film as any for such a deserving … Continue reading
Avengers: Endgame became the top-grossing film of all-time this summer. However, if adjusted for current inflation, 1939’s Gone with the Wind would still be at the top of the list. Depending upon who you ask, Gone with the Wind (GwtW) … Continue reading
*After a hiatus, Oscar-winning films are back. In the early days of the Academy, it seems as if the voting members weren’t quite sure what they thought movies were supposed to look like, sound like, and feel like in the … Continue reading
As the 1937 winner for Best Picture, The Life of Emile Zola, is a film that leaves many more drags in time than pulsing moments of fascination and captivating action. For a film recording the life of one of France’s … Continue reading
I’m not quite sure that the producers of The Great Ziegfeld know what kind of film they were trying to make. A biopic? A musical? A comedy? A drama? All of the above? If the later is the answer then … Continue reading
When starting this project of watching all of the Academy Award winners for Best Picture, in order, there were a few, early on, that I wasn’t looking forward to. I thought they would be a bore, quite frankly. I thought … Continue reading
It isn’t long into Frank Capra’s romantic comedy classic, that the audience knows this film is complete– complete in vision, performance, editing… everything. Just as Sunrise and Wings showed how fine a silent film could be, It Happened One Night … Continue reading
It wasn’t long into Frank Lloyd’s Cavalcade that the film felt different. It wasn’t because the film focusses on a well-to-do English family at the turn of the century. Instead, the ‘difference’ of Cavalcade is that early on the tone … Continue reading
